SereneCooking

I'm no longer using this journal. Please see serenecooking instead. Thanks!

Yesterday I made six quiches (using the basic recipe for the one of mine on the rec.food.cooking signature page, but three kinds: caramelized onion and goat cheese; green chili and cheddar; and pesto/mozzarella/parmesan). We tested one of the goat cheese ones (YUM!). The rest were for a party, though two of them were way overdone.

Then I made a big pot of mushroom barley soup (also for the party). For six quarts or so of soup, I used 5.5 POUNDS of mushrooms. The stuff was amazing. I have to duplicate it at home -- three onions, six cloves of garlic, a stick of butter, the mushrooms, (cook all those down first, then add) three ribs of celery, three carrots in coins, salt, pepper, a cup of barley, enough water to fill the pot. Bring to a boil, simmer for an hour.

And I got heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, along with some green and purple fresh basil, for a caprese salad to go with it.

Today, I made spicy cioppino for someotherguy, who has a cold. Used a whole head of garlic, a bunch of black pepper, and a bunch of sriracha -- he said it cleared his sinuses before he even started eating it. It was delicious. Later, we had a nice dinner of mashed potatoes, chickpea gravy, and broccoli.

And just now, I made potato patties out of some of the leftover mashed potatoes, cheese, and a couple eggs.

I am SO happy that I've gotten well enough to spend the weekend cooking. Besides my broken foot, it was utterly happymaking to do this. It was a good weekend, foodwise.

Tonight's dinner (neither low in fat nor vegan, because if my arteries can't handle an occasional treat, fuck'em):

Grilled havarti and red onion sandwiches on wild rice and onion bread

Campbell's tomato soup (yeah, yeah, I know. It was 30 cents a can after coupons and someotherguy and I really like it with grilled cheese.)

Stuffed summer squash (stuffing was sauteed in butter until it gave up all its moisture, and consisted of a fine dice of onions, garlic, mushrooms, carrots, and the innards of the squash, along with a little salt and seasoned bread crumbs. Oh, my goodness.)

Bless someotherguy for indulging me today. He took me food shopping, and we got the stuff for me to make chiles rellenos.

In San Diego, where I lived most of my life, making chiles rellenos is like making injera in Oakland, where I live now: you can do it if you want, but most people won't bother, because you can buy them on any street corner.

Today, I bothered. Sadly, I didn't take photos, but oh, my, these were so good. Best I've ever had, and I love the things madly. (They were probably best because (a) we ate them within a few minutes of making them; and (b) they were not drowned in enchilada sauce, so they didn't get soggy.)

I based them on this recipe, omitting the flour, and forgetting the pinch of salt. Used Monterey Jack cheese, and served with a bunch of stuff: shredded chicken in homemade enchilada sauce, rice, avocados, fresh salsa, and sour cream. My, my, my. Very good.

My weekend so far had been chaotic and difficult. I make order in my life by shopping for and preparing food. I feel so much better now.

[posted to serene and serenecooking]

[posted to serene and serenecooking]

12 quarts of whole golden plums = 20 cups of diced/pitted plums

20 cups of plums + 16 cups of sugar + 4 cups of water = 4 batches of plum preserves

4 batches of plum preserves = 24 half-pint jars (plus three or so cups left over) of amber-colored goodness. It's sweet and tangy, and very good.

(I'll try to take pictures of it tomorrow, but after a day spent over a bunch of boiling pots of goo, I just need to crash now.)

Rough morning, so I'm posting this without commentary:

Monday (today): Beef-and-pattypan-squash sautee over noodles
Tuesday: Tuna casserole
Wednesday: Goat curry (slow-cooker); rice
Thursday: Spaghetti and tomato sauce
Friday: Mussel chowder and bread
Saturday: Potatoes and chickpea gravy
Sunday: Dinner salad (with lots of "stuff" in it)

I forgot to mention one of the great things that happened on mom's visit. I made kneidlach soup for her, as I often do, and she had no corrections to make! Now, the significance of this may not be clear to anyone else, but mom knows that I want her to tell me when I've got something "off" in one of her recipes, because I want to get my childhood foods right. This time, she just kept telling me how good it was.

If you've met my mom, you know she's not shy about offering criticism. I think I may have made the perfect kneidlach soup. Too bad I didn't measure when I made the kneidlachs, but I think I have the texture down perfectly by sight, so we'll see how that goes next time.

I did most of the cooking while she was here, and she appeared to love it all. That makes me happy. She ate a LOT by her standards, though I thought it was a moderate amount most of the time. She did make herself sick a couple times, though, and that made me sad. She may have even put on a couple of pounds (which of course prompted her to give up bread on the last day here and go all Atkins on me, but hey, after that, I made her a mushroom omelet that she couldn't stop raving about, so all is well and I really really am not going to try to talk my mother out of her crazy food stuff. It's pretty much engrained by age 69, I'd say).

Posted this to Usenet, too:

My mom arrives tonight and I promised her a pot of kneidlach soup when she gets here. Usually, I make the soup in a few stages -- the schmaltz one day, the stock the next, the soup on the third day -- but I had a rough week, so it didn't happen. No worries, I'll just cook my ass off today. :-)

So far, I've mostly rendered the schmaltz, started the stock (from two whole chickens and some scraps), set aside the chicken meat, mixed the matzoh dough, and attempted to keep all this from making my kitchen look like wild animals live in there. Oh, and I baked a loaf of bread, because my mom rarely gets fresh bread, and she's looking forward to it.

I get to hang out with my mommy for four days! I'm very excited. As she gets older and sicker, every time could be the last time, as I know that a lot of you here know, so I'm really treasuring the time we will get to be together.

(She's also bringing a big huge cooler full of meat -- for the last few weeks, every time she's seen some meat on sale, she's bought it and tossed it into the freezer to bring up to me. I think we're gonna need a few weeks of vegan food after this visit to set us right again. ;-)

Last weekend, stonebender and I got together and had a bulk-cooking day. I made three lasagne and four chicken-and-rice casseroles (one of which I spilled all over my kitchen floor). Seven huge casseroles (with meat) for around $70. Not bad at all. We ate one lasagne that night, I left one there, and I brought one home with me. This one is extra-special because I forgot to put the mozzarella in it. :-)

What I made:




Lasagne

[Note: Instructions are for my mom's version, without forgetting mozzarella; stonebender's mother uses breakfast sausage rather than Italian sausage, so I did that just for fun. It was good, just not exactly like my mom's. :-)]

Ingredients:

Approximately 12 lasagna noodles (a twelve-ounce box of pasta is more than enough for one pan of lasagne; two pounds made enough for three pans with a little left over)
1 pound each ground beef and Italian sausage, crumbled, cooked, and drained
enough of your favorite pasta sauce to just moisten the meat -- don't use too much (I make my mom's sauce from scratch, and I'd say I use around a few cups for one pan of lasagne. Mom's sauce ALWAYS has parmesan added at the end, so you might want to do that)
1 to 1.5 pounds mozzarella, shredded
1 to 1.5 pounds ricotta
1 egg
salt/pepper
1/2 to 1 cup parmesan cheese, grated or shredded

Get all set up:

1) Cook lasagna noodles until they're almost done (I'd estimate 6 or 8 minutes); drain and set aside in a bowl of cool water
2) Mix together meats and sauce
3) Mix ricotta with the egg, some salt, and plenty of pepper

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a 9x13 or so pan, layer the lasagna in this order (when I say "sauce", I mean the meat/sauce mixture). Steps 11-13 are not a typo: mom says it's necessary to do them that way in order to keep the mozzarella from drying out.

1) Enough sauce to cover the bottom of the pan
2) Lasagne noodles, lengthwise in one layer
3) 1/2 of the ricotta
4) 1/3 of the remaining sauce
5) 1/3 of the mozzarella
6) Noodles, sidewise in one layer
7) remaining ricotta
8) The second 1/3 of the sauce
9) The second 1/3 of the mozzarella
10) Noodles, lengthwise in one layer
11) Remaining mozzarella
12) Remaining sauce
13) All the parmesan

Bake at 350F for 60-90 minutes, uncovered. [To make ahead, wrap well and refrigerate up to 2 days or freeze up to 6 months. To reheat from frozen, either thaw overnight or add around one hour to cooking time. Today, I did a slow reheat, since we were off doing laundry before dinner. 2.5 hours at 275F and the last 30 minutes at 350F was perfect, but I found the noodles a little mushy.]



How we liked it:

sogwife: "It was yummy, and it had the right amount of sauce and everything."
someotherguy: "Yeah. By the time lasagne is cold, it should be finger food."
wtfpotatoes: "I like lasagne. This is awesome. I like MEAT in lasagne. This is AWESOME."
serene: I thought it was kick-ass, even though my mouth expected mozzarella. I thought the noodles were a little tiny bit soggy from the slow reheat, but no one else thought so. Not one of us was able to finish the size piece we chose for ourselves. This stuff is VERY filling.

Cost per serving:

Ten large servings (or eight HUGE ones, huger than any sane person could eat).

Total: $1.56 per serving (or $1.95 per HUGE serving)

Noodles: $1
ground beef: $2
sausage: $1.50
sauce: $2.50 (including the parmesan)
mozzarella: $3.50
ricotta: $3
egg: 10 cents
salt/pepper: negligible
parmesan: $2

Unless you all can find me a better one, this is the cake I'm making for the kid's one-year anniversary here tomorrow. (Shh! It's a secret.) http://mykitch3n.blogspot.com/2009/04/matcha-roll.html